Shooting Stars BM NOTD

Here I used the Milani silver Holo called HD.  It's more holographic than the Cosmetic Arts polish I used last time.  I was still in my starry mood so I used another star image from the same plate I used last time (plate BM20).

I stamped in Konad Special Black and topped with SV. 

Milani HD, BM20, Konad Black

Shooting Stars!

Rainbow-ey goodness

Look how L O N G my nails are!

On another note, oh my gosh!  I can't believe how Looooooong my nails are!   They started just at my fingertips, I'd say.  In fact, here's my first Konadicure so you can see the length I started with:

This is OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui stamped with Sonia Kashuk Taunting Teal

See? Just to my fingertips maybe a *touch* past...

And now my nails are the longest they've EVER been!  I could never keep them long because of sports (if you play water polo you KNOW what I'm talking about! You can't have ANY white showing), or because of playing the guitar, or just plain being a big fat tomboy!  haha... which I definitely am.

I'd like to think I'm S L O W L Y growing into a "young woman," and maybe by the time I'm 50 I'll feel like a "lady."  I'm just not there, yet, though!  In my mind, I'm just one of the guys.  That is, if guys wear zebra print nail polish!  =0)

I just may have to cut them all off, though, and start again.  With the new year coming and all, I feel like a change!  Wadda you guys think? 

Should they stay or should they go?  

*dun dun dun dah dah dah dah DUN*  (yeah. you were humming along, WEREN'T YOU?!  hahah!)

Bundle Monster Image Plate Storage Solution!

OK.  Since I went from 4 Konad plates to 25 (including the 21 new BM plates) in ONE DAY, I needed a storage solution.  Especially since the BM plates are kinda sharp and not that nice to handle.
And I tell ya what, a stack of 21 image plates (even though they're a little thinner than the Konad ones) is HEAVY!  =0)

So, I asked the girls on MUA what they do, and I got a few good ideas.  One girl said she uses a business card file.  AND she told me that they could be had at the Dollar Tree, no less.  Thanks Love8Brain!

So, I checked...and there they were!  And she was right- the openings fit my image plates perfectly.

Business card file-$1 at DT holds BM and Konad plates perfectly!

This thing holds 72 business cards- but that's front to back.  I figured the image plates should be one per side...but that leaves the other side to hold a business card with the images stamped onto it for reference:

This is the front page....

And these plates match the images on the cards...cool, eh?

here's more...

And another...

So get thee to a Dollar Tree STAT! And enjoy your new BM/Konad plate file folder thingey and your new life as an organized zen like master of the clutter. Haha. Just kidding!

We can all try though, can't we?  =0)

Bundle Monster Mani #1! I'm Seeing Stars...

Yeah. I did it.  I finally ordered the Bundle Monster plates.  And right at Christmas time at that.  I had them on my Amazon.com wishlist for a while, but I heard some chatter on MUA about them maybe not being available (question mark? still not sure what that was about...) so I jumped on it.  Mr. L said it could be my Christmas present.  Yay!

It said on the Amazon tracking system that they were coming from Hawaii!  Which I didn't know.  But even though it projected the package to arrive in 11 days, it only took 5. Woohoo!  I was so excited to see that little white envelope!  XD

I of course had to immediately rip it open and play!

The first design to really jump out at me (and one I have been waiting to get my hands on) is the all over solid star pattern from plate BM20.  It's really cute!  I'm surprised I haven't seen more pix of girls using it.

Cosmetic Arts polish in "Silver Belle," stamped with Konad Special Black w/ BM20 plate

Silver Belle is pretty! I was going for a sparkly/rainbow/shining star thing.

It didn't come out totally 100% perfect, but I need to practice with the BM full nail plates since they are so much smaller than the Konad images. My left hand looks better than my right, though, because as luck would have it, my left hand nails are the exact right length for the BM full nail images. My right hand nails are a tad longer so the star image ends before my tips.  Doesn't look that great.

I'm very happy with the Bundle Monster plates, though.  A couple of them had scratches on them, but not over any of the images.  They all seem to stamp well once you get the right polish or pressure or method down.  So, yeah.  They're a little more finicky than the Konad plates, but the price difference makes it totally worth it.  I'd have spent close to $150 on Konad plates instead of the less than $20 for the BM set.

True, you don't get to choose the exact plates you will get, but they are always the same set.  So at least you know what you're getting and can see them before hand.  I always research my purchases like crazy before buying so I knew what all the images were.  Most of the plates have images I will use and a few of the plates I LOVE!  So, it's definitely a win for me! 

Hope everyone is hanging in there!  Xmas is coming fast. . . but make sure you guys KEEP YOUR HEADS!   Remember what it's all about and enjoy the time you get to spend with your loved ones.  I know I treasure every second I get with mine!  (you know who you are!)  =0)

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I've neglected you.  I feel bad about it, I really do.  I feel like I've let you down somehow.  The holiday roar and commotion has taken over my life and taken all my time away from you.  I know now that I need to keep up with posts and not just leave them in the "draft" section.  *shy grin*

Dear blog, I promise to nurture you with the fervent fever that I started you out with.

And to show you my determination and commitment, here is a little nail p0rn for you to enjoy- just so you know I'm utterly serious:

From the Color Club Enchanted Holiday mini set

Holiday Mani#2

Color Club Magic Elf with xmas tree decals

No-man (get it? snowman) decal = cute!

And just for kicks, here's a new ULTA I got called Smoke Screen.  Supposedly a dupe for Zoya Kelly.  I swear I'm the only person left on the planet who doesn't have Zoya Kelly!  And now I don't feel the need to go out and get it! Mouwahahaha!  ;0)

ULTA Smoke Screen

ULTA Smoke Screen - little different lighting view

Wow. Look how it matches my blog background! funny.

Wet N Wild Prancer over WnW Black Franken

OK. It happened. I gave in to the hype.  I've participated in and created my very own, FIRST, holiday mani.  And it was AWESOME!

WnW Prancer Holiday LE over WnW Black Creme Franken

Hmmm...huge red glitter yummy-ness...

Oh yeah, look at that shine!

So, I finally did it.  And it wasn't so bad!  I have had this franken for a while, but never wore it until now.  I'm not sure if you can even tell, but it's a mixture of WnW Black Creme with some holographic silver thrown in. I love frankening with WnW's black creme. It makes any polish I can come up with a one-coater.  And I LOVE that!  I used the glitter, also from WnW, from the Halloween Limited Edition Display this year.  It's so sparkly and yummo!

Here's a straight up Franken I did with the holo glitter in WnW Clear.

It's a rainbow in a bottle, alright...

Blurred for xtra rainbow effect!  XD

Now I'm pumped.  I've got Bundle Monster plates on the way, and I'm ready for more Holiday themed mani's!  I'm thinking I'll do a "Winter" theme next.  I think there's a snowflake design in there somewhere I can use as soon as my plates arrive (from Hawaii!) . . off to plan some winter wonderland nail art!

Wish me luck!  XD

Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year.  We played it pretty mellow here cause it was FREEZING!  And there was SNOW on the ground!  It's melted now, and all kitties are accounted for and warm. =0)

Anyway, I just wanted to show you guys what you're missing over here.  I made my WORLD FAMOUS POTATOES!  My BF ate TONS of them the first night and we almost finished them last night and again had some for breakfast this morning.  Luckily I have enough ingredients to make another round! He's already begging for more! 

Here's what it turned out like:

You KNOW you want some....

Sorry you missed this!

So, our Thanksgiving was a good one.  Safe and warm at home with the BF and all the kitties.  What more could I ask for?  ;0)

Want the recipe for this yummo Potatoes Au Gratin dish?
Here goes:

Get yourself an 8x8 pan
grease the bottom with buttah
cut up a couple potatoes (after you remove skins of course)- if you have a mandolin, USE IT! I do!  ;0)
   -They need to be thin-ish slices to cook all the way
Cut up an onion also into thin-ish slices
*In the bottom of the pan, lay down a layer of potato slices, then onion pieces.
Sprinkle garlic powder and pepper over that layer
Then cut up some buttah and place little patties over the layer evenly-for extra yummo factor.
Then sprinkle in some cheese (sharp cheddah is our fav)*
Rince and repeat the part between * and *
When you get to the top, before you sprinkle on the last layer of cheese: Pour in a mixture of 3 or 4 eggs mixed with milk to the 1cup line in a measuring cup.  You can add some more pepper in there and/or a LITTLE bit of nutmeg if you want.
THEN add the last layer of cheese and cover with tin foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 mins.
Then take off the tin foil so you can get that crust on the cheese...
Turn the oven up to 400 degrees and let that baby cook another 10-15 minutes.

Watch it tho!  And take it out when it looks like the lovely dish above.

Just a little disclaimer: 
I am not a cook!  I probably never will be. . . I try sometimes, but more often than not, I fail!  haha...
However, I can bake like nobody's business!  And I count this dish as a baking dish.  I mean, really?  It's super easy and really hard to fudge up.  So try it!  But if it sucks, don't blame me for it!   XD

Cosmetic Arts Silver Belles is holographic! (With Comparisons)

OK. Someone on MUA said they found a new brand of polish at their Fred Meyer.  Which happened to be a location very close to my house.  While I didn't trek out to the one she was referring to, I did happen to stop by my Fred Meyer for milk and butter (you know, the essentials!) and wandered over to the polish setction.

I have to say, the Fred Meyer closest to my house is AWESOME about Limited Edition polish.  They always get things in before anyone else, and this was no exception.  I found the Cosmetic Arts Nail Polish display along with the LE (although I hear they may become part of the core line) Milani Gems Polishes.  And of course, there were the LA Girls Rockstar as well as their Metallic Polishes.  On the other side were the Holiday Milani Polishes I blogged about already (gold and silver holos).  Not to mention the pink breast cancer awareness OPI polish display.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Fred Meyer, I love you!  You are on the front lines of my polish obsession.  And for that, I thank you.  ;0)

OK.  I'm done gushing now.  Onto the goods!

One of the colors that stood out to me the most was the "Silver Belle" color.  It did indeed look like just another silver foil/sparkle/shimmer/metallic, etc.  However, when I took a whif of the actual polish, I could tell it was holographic!  Does that make me crazy?  That I can sniff out a holo polish with my nose?  You all know what I'm talking about, don't you?  OMG smells like it, and GOSH smells like it.  There's a certain, I-don't-know-what that silver holographic polishes have. Anyway, I brought it home and I was right!

It's not like OMG.  It's not like GOSH. It's probably more like the Kaleidoscope line by China Glaze, although I don't have any of those, yet.  It's a more of a scattered holo and not the linear type.  You'll see what I mean.

Looks like silver here, but it's a scattered rainbow in bright light!

Here's the comparison shot. L-R: SB, Gosh Holographic, SB, China Glaze OMG

Cosmetic Arts Silver Belle

Overall, this polish is awesome!  It's so pretty, it dries SUPER FAST like all of these types of holographics do, and it is sooooo much easier to remove than a glitter polish since it's smooth.

The formula on this one was great. It went on like buttah and I didn't have any problems with dragging or bald spots.  I'm pretty sure this would ROCK for making frankens! ;0)

The ONLY small complaint I can think of is that the brush on the one I got is kinda wonky.  It wants to have fly-aways, but if I tell it who's boss, it will cooperate OK.

Hope you guys are able to find these! There were other colors that I KNOW are going to be exciting for you girls!  I have one more to show you (for now) from this line so STAY TUNED!  XD

Chocolate Zebra (ChG Ingrid + FYI Konad)

I love China Glaze Ingrid.  I really love it.  It's brown, but it's almost taup-ey. It's NOT a red based brown. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
I just like this kind better!  ;0)
Well, what do you think?

See how it's kind of a neutral brown?

Look at that golden shimmer!

Ingrid is definitely my favorite brown polish!

So, yeah. I started out with Ingrid. 
Then, as happends to me all too often, I got bored.

Shortly thereafter, this happened:

China Glaze Ingrid and China Glaze FYI from the OMG collection.

I LOVE FYI!  It's a pretty neutral holo polish and it was my first Dusty find!

So there you have it.  I may even get bored of this accent nail thing and go all the way with the zebra stripey goodness.  We'll see. 

For now, anyway, I'm in love with my Chocolate Zebra nails!  Waddya think?

Etsy Inspired Snow Leopard Konad Mani

For this look, I was inspired by a set of fake nails I saw on Etsy.  Click here to check them out!

I loved that they were matte instead of shiny and I loved that they used one of my favorite color combinations, blue and grey.  So, of course, I had to try this look out for myself! 

Good thing I had the right Konad plate on hand (m57)!

Here's what I did:

Snow Leopard mani inspired by Etsy nails

Topped with Essie Matte About You!

I LOVE this look!  I opted not to do the accent nail like the Etsy seller did.  She painted the ring fingers the opposite way and used a blue base with grey accent dots. (Honestly, I just forgot to do it. haha!)

OK. First, I did my usual Nail Magic treatment coat.  Then, 2 coats of China Glaze's Strong Adhesion Base Coat.  Then I did 2 coats of China Glaze Recycle for the base.  Topped that off with Konad Special Polish in Black for the leopard print using the m57 image plate.  And finally, the baby blue polish was a franken I made by mixing China Glaze Flyin' High with a bunch of white.   I added those dots with a toothpick dipped in polish.  Et, voila!

Mais, non.  That's when I ran into trouble.  I tried to put a coat of Out The Door on top of it to get everything to dry faster, and this happened:

Holy streaking polish, Batman!  That's one stripey pinkie!

Yeah, the OTD topcoad did not play nice with the Konad Special Black polish.  I'm sure it was totally dry, but it still smeared like a mother.  So....

I had to resort to using my goopy bottle of Seche Vite. If you apply it carefully in a glob and just push the glob around without touching the brush to the polish underneath, it doesn't streak (usually). 

After I waited for that to dry, I applied the Essie Matte About You and all was well in the world of polish for me!  ;0)

One more shot- you can't really see the streaking from normal range, anyway.

Yeah, you bad.

Lemme know what you think...and as always,

Love and nail polish, ladies!

Milani 3D Holographic Gold and Silver Swatches

So, I saw these the other day at Fred Meyer and thought I'd like to know what they look like on.  Then I thought you might want to see, too! XD

Here's the silver one. These are labeled as "Milani 3D Holographic." And they are holographic, but it's more of a rainbow glitter all over type than the OMG collection linear holos. Voila:

Milani 3D Holographic (#509)

A little burry so you can see sparkle!

I like the silver one a lot.  It's pretty and silvery and sparkly.  What's not to love?!  I'm less of a gold type girl, but I swatched the gold anyway so you could see.

Milani 3D Holographic (#510)

Again slightly blurry for maximum sparkle effect.

The formula on these is pretty good.  This was 2 coats on the gold and 3 on the silver.  The silver one is a little more sheer.  The gold is holo glitter in a gold base where as the silver is just the glitter suspended in a clear base.

Anyway, these are very pretty!  I didn't get to see them in full sunlight (it's very dreary 'round these parts this time of year), but I'm sure the bling-fest will be ON!

I still prefer the OMG type linear holo to this kind, but these kind of polishes definitely have their place.  I think for the holidays thses colors are pretty spot on and awesome.  Go get 'em!  The only other polish in the Milani Holiday display that I saw was a neon red shade.  Um, yeah. Me plus red equals no go.  Let's just leave it at that.  Shall we?  ;0)

Patchwork Nails Mani

So, my friends at MUA have inspired me once again.  I finally tried a patchwork mani.  Here's the original tutorial.

I tried it with tape like she suggests (even Scotch brand!) but it didn't work out so great. I had some polish slip under the edges so the lines didn't look perfectly straight.  I used OPI Ski Teal We Drop, and China Glaze Flyin' High and Recycle.

I thought it looked OK, but I knew I could do better...

If you know me at all, you know that fudged lines just won't do for me.  I HAD to re-do this mani and do it right!

So I tried again.  This time, Mr. Lacquerish let me use his airbrushing supplies. Something called "Frisket." It's for masking off areas you don't want the airbrush paint to get to.  Seemed prefect for my application and it WAS!

Check it out:

This time worked a LOT better!

 I used OPI Suzy Skis in the Pyrenees, OPI Suzy Says Feng Shui, OPI Lucern-tainly Look Marvelous (for the ring finger accent only) and China Glaze Awaken.

My ring finger has OPI Lucertainly Look Marvelous instead of the blue (accent nail).

I think I like this version better anyway.  Also of note, the first time I used Seche Vite as my topcoat. My bottle is getting near 1/3 of the way gone and is pretty goopy at the moment as a result. It was kind of hard to work with and made this mani very thick when done.

The second time around I used Out The Door top coat.  It's similar to Seche in that it's a quick dry.  It doesn't dry quite as fast, but it's much thinner than the goopy mess that is my Seche Vite right now.
I think it worked a lot better in the end, although I did need to wait a bit longer between colors for it do try completely.

So, waddya think, guys?  Have you seen the patchwork mani's popping up, yet?  What would be your favorite color combo?

I broke a Nail, not a Heel with China Glaze Lubu Heels

OK. So, I am not a person who is easy on her hands. In fact, I clean out 8 litter boxes a day.  Plus vacuuming.  Yeah, I know...

So, I'm not surprised when I break a nail.  But it still sucks.  =0P

This time it was my thumb on my LEFT hand.  My LEFT hand?  Really?  Honest to god.  How a person who is right-handed breaks a THUMB nail on her LEFT hand is beyond me.

It's all good, though. I fixed it right up using the Tea Bag Method.  If you have never seen it done before, check out the video.  It's an awesome way to keep the lengh of your nails so you don't have to cut them all down to nubbins!  I used 2 layers of tea bag and glue in order to feel secure with the repair.

Now she's good as new!  =0)

After that whole debacle I was ready for some color, people!

I chose China Glaze Lubu Heels. It is a vampy dark color (again almost black) with red glitter!  Very vampire / Halloweenie. Well, check it out for yourself:

Candy Mani

So, I've seen other girlies doing this "Candy Corn" mani and thought I'd try it out for myself! 

I used the neon orange LA Colors polish I found at the Dollar Tree along with white and yellow LA colors Art Deco stripers.  It worked out OK, but could have been better.

On my left hand I used white under the yellow stripe to give it some more oompfh.  I thought that since the yellow was kind of sheer that it would look better that way. 

For my right hand, I wanted to see how it would look without it. 

Which do you prefer?  I actually like it better more muted and in the future will abort and leave out the white layer underneith.

What are you guys doing for halloween- anything fun?